At last weekend’s Nexus 2007 conference, I had the pleasure of moderating a panel on Citizen Journalism. From there, I got to know one of the speakers, Ms Jennifer Lewis as the Editor of STOMP. Whether you’re a casual blogger or an aspiring journalist, this guest speaker session should be interesting to you.

Ms. Jennifer has taken time off her busy schedule to share with us on what STOMP is about, as well as to discuss the state of citizen journalism in Singapore. I’ve informed her about your blog posts and your suggestions to improve STOMP, so this is a dialogue you won’t want to miss.

As usual, it will be this Wednesday, 10.30-11.30am at LT4.13.

There will be regular lessons for the 2nd day this week, as I need to share with you a short presentation as well as to check on your progress in Second Life.

Her article now appears alongside other interesting news from around the blogosphere. Though it’s a quick blurb (which appears on the blog’s sidebar), it’s a good start for something I’ve been encouraging all students to do, that is…

To Get Public Recognition For Your Work

Global Voices Online is a non-profit global citizens’ media project, sponsored by and launched from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at the Harvard Law School. Since Global Voices Online serves an international community of bloggers, it’s a popular blog, so Jiayi should start getting visitors soon.

@Jiayi: Congrats! You have now earned the first ever COM125 “Most Popular” blog award for being linked by a reputable news media. Keep up the great work! 🙂

@Everyone: Publicize your work! A tip to get visitors would be to read more blogs and to leave decent comments on them. Most bloggers would naturally be curious about you and return the favor in kind!

The past two weeks has been interesting. There has been signs of Second Life (SL) getting more mainstream in Singapore. As such, I’m ordering everyone start immersing yourselves into SL early, so as to fully experience what it has to offer. SL has a high learning curve so get the hang on it in your free time. Ride the wave now before you get left behind. Even if you’re too cool for school, you can join in from home.

Some of you showed interest in building a virtual SIM campus in SL, so I’ve contacted SIM administrators for permission. Even if we can’t finish this by the end of this semester, it’s be fun and useful to do it as a project outside of class time. I’ve also contacted Alvin Loo to see if he could give us some land in “Lion City”.

Lastly, I’d like to try to organize a virtual meetup in Second Life. Once more of you are ready, we can meet in there and conduct classes, or just explore the world together.

A newspaper interview, secondlife and of Nexus 2007
Marina finally gets the recognition she deserves. She’s a little shy in real life, and expresses herself best in Second Life. She’s now recognized in the Straits Times as well as in Nexus 2007 as a panel speaker.

Most of you have adopted a local political blogger in your previous assignment. For those who haven’t, you can still find one. We’re going to help the general public access political discussions online by creating a directory of local political bloggers. Here’s what we’re doing in class:

Our admin girl, Ann Sum, has confirmed the change of COM125 classes for Monday and Tuesday to LT4.13 instead of those crummy computer labs. Wednesday and Thursdays classes will be in the usual labs so we can have fun there.